Key Facts:
- ‘The Policewoman’ is a new documentary following Narelle Fraser, a former Victoria Police detective who spent 27 years on the force, 15 of them investigating serious crimes including murder, child abuse, and sex offences across the Rape and Homicide Squads and Missing Persons Unit.
- Fraser was involved in several high-profile Australian cases, including the Mornington Monster murders, the Wales-King Society Murders, and the 2002 Bali bombing, before a PTSD diagnosis in 2012 ended her policing career.
- The documentary uses miniature dioramas to help Fraser retrace her career, exploring both her investigative work and her mental health journey in a frank and immersive style.
- Since leaving the force, Fraser has become a prominent true crime podcaster, speaker, and trainer, lecturing in investigation technique and human rights and presenting to police, health, and community groups across Australia.
- ‘The Policewoman’ premieres in Victoria at Echuca’s Paramount Cinema on 17 October before a nationwide cinema release on 5 November.
New documentary The Policewoman traces the former Victoria Police detective’s time spent solving some of Australia’s darkest crimes, her descent into PTSD, and journey to mental health champion and podcasting fame
The Policewoman, in cinemas nationwide from 5 November.
Watch the trailer here
Narelle Fraser spent 27 years with Victoria Police, 15 of them as a detective across the Rape and Homicide Squads and the Missing Persons Unit, investigating some of the most disturbing murder, child abuse, and sex offences of the time. In the new documentary The Policewoman, in cinemas nationally from 5 November, she revisits the highs and lows of a career spent grappling with shocking crime. This took a toll on her own mental health, and caused her to be discharged from the force. It did however pave the way for her to become one of Australia’s top true crime podcasters and mental health advocates.
Narelle built her reputation on an approach that ran against the grain of a job that usually demanded distance: getting close and connecting with the people she was investigating and those she sought to help. It worked. She played a key role in some of Victoria’s highest-profile investigations, including the murders of Anna and Gracie Sharpe by the “Mornington Monster” John Sharpe, the Wales-King “Society Murders,” the Maria Korp “body in the boot” case, the 2002 Bali bombing, and the hunt for the Boxhill rapist.
But that same empathy carried with it an immense personal cost. By 2012, the weight of a career spent close to some of the state’s worst crimes and criminals had caught up with her. A PTSD diagnosis she wasn’t expecting ended the career she loved and forced her to rebuild an identity that had, for nearly three decades, been built entirely around the job.
Through this wide-ranging frank, open, and immersive true-crime documentary, Narelle invites viewers to step into her shoes, retracing the fall and rise of her time with Victoria Police, retold through a series of meticulously crafted miniature dioramas that allow Narelle to put the pieces of her career back together.
Since leaving the force, Narelle has built a public profile as a speaker, trainer and podcaster. She appeared on the Australian True Crime podcast many times alongside Meshel Laurie and Emily Webb and the massive popularity of those episodes led her to create her own True crime podcast ‘Narelle Fraser Interviews‘. She has trained investigators, lectures in investigation technique and human rights, and has presented to police, health and community groups across the country.
On making the film, Narelle says, “Every police officer has stories like mine. We need to normalise mental illness, not stigmatise it. And despite everything I experienced and the scars it left, I don’t think there’s anything more rewarding than being a police officer. If anyone said they wanted to join, I’d tell them, it’s the best job in the world.”
The Policewoman will have its Victorian premiere at Echuca’s Paramount Cinema on Saturday 17 October, returning Narelle to the Rochester/Echuca district she calls home, before opening in cinemas nationally from 5 November.
